Wild Kingdom
Henrietta: Who wants to rumble?
Manipulation
When Henrietta wants to play, she’s very direct.
Like a slithering snake, she mills around our ankles and seizes opportunities to strike.
She’s an ankle biter.
I have scars from her efforts.
Her technique is effective because of persistence,
like a dog with a bone. An ankle bone!
Ha!
When she’s in a mood, our choice is to kennel her or engage in play.
She almost always gets a chase,
some fetch,
or a walk.
Henri is the third dog my husband and I have invited to share our life.
The joke started with our first, shortly after we were married.
While I’d wrestle a maniac pup, my husband would say, “While Gail wrestles the snarling panther, I’ll kick back and drink some cold lemonade.”
A riff on Johnny Carson, Jim Fowler and Marlin Perkins.
Wild Kingdom
A few nights ago I took up my post dinner post on the couch with a book and my phone. I was restless and found myself scrolling through Netflix previews.
A new documentary….Night On Earth.
Okay, I’ll bite.
My family often watched Wild Kingdom on Sunday nights when I was a child.
Technology has come a long way since the black and white early 70s.
Netflix uses state of the art night film.
When I was five, I felt bad when Marlin told of zebras pursued by lions.
Watching Netflix today, I felt a little bad for hunted gazelles.
I also felt more than a little manipulated by haunting music and a dramatic narrator.
I hate suffering, but I’ve come to learn it’s a part of living.
Yes? No? Maybe so?
What do YOU think?
I believe there is a subtle magnetism in Nature which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. ~Henry David Thoreau
When my son was young, we read together almost every night before he went to sleep.
One of our favorite series was Wolves of the Beyond by Kathryn Lasky.
Every time Faolan the protagonist wolf killed its prey, the author described the sign of respect the wolf showed its dying meal—lochinvyrr. Faolan looked into the animal’s eyes and thanked it for giving up its life so that he could live.
Manipulation of a different color?
Perhaps, but it suits me.
An explanation…not drama for drama’s sake.
So my question is…..
What and who are you allowing to manipulate you?